3/05/2014

Muffuletta Deviled Eggs

Deviled Egg, I have someone I would like you to meet-- The Muffuletta. I'm sure most of you are familiar with deviled eggs. But for those of you unfamiliar with a Muffuletta, it is a sub-style sandwich that originated from Italian immigrants in New Orleans. It consists of layers of various meats and cheeses like mortadella, salami, provolone, and mozzarella. These delicious components are placed on Sicilian style bread that has been spread with a generous helping of olive salad. That's a good sammich.

What is olive salad, you ask? It's a combination of pickled vegetables, chopped olives, Italian seasoning, and olive oil. It's not something I use quite a lot (ok, very seldom and only for muffuletas and now these deviled eggs), so I purchase a small jar from the market.

To keep the egg filling from being overly greasy, I rinse the olive salad and drain it well. I incorporate the usual deviled egg suspect-- mayo, but I kick up the Muffuletta flavors with grated sharp Provolone and a generous garnish of chopped hard salami. To brighten the flavors, I added a little red wine vinegar and a flat-leaf parsley (that adds a little color as well).

Remove the yolks from the egg whites; set the whites aside. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the egg yolks, olive salad, mayonnaise, cheese, and red wine vinegar. Process until the yolks are creamy and the olive salad is finely chopped. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture. Top each egg with a little of the chopped salami and sprinkle with parsley. Enjoy!